The new guy need help.

Hello there!

I just bought this great game - Guild Wars, the most basic thing there is, and...well, I've had some bad experiance with previous MMOs, which menas I usually make an absolutley unusable and gimped first character, I don't want to do that again. So I would appreciate some help. Which character, what build, what guide, anything that would put me on the right track. I like playing casting classes, I'm a cookie-cutter *bows head in shame*, like helping other classes (blunt healing doesn't count) or doing crazy damage.

...So yeah, hi, help, thanks.

what campaigns did you buy?
did you just buy 1?
What kind of casters?
Monks?Elementalists?Mesmers?Necromancers?

So, I bought prohpecies, and I think I will buy one more, dunno which one, and I like...and about the casters - I hoped you would help me with this, which ones are fun, which ones you find fun and why? Well, if you know World of Warcraft, I like priests and warlocks, if you don't...I like support classes and casters that are not your brute damage dealers.

ele is the basic cookie cutter caster---you kill lots of stuff and have some neat animations with them.
if you want to do some healing---then go monk.
necros are versatile in that they can do hexing or make an army of minions...
mesmers are a tricky bunch to play and may not be a good idea for a first profession (however, you do get 4 character slots so you can try them all out and see what you like and which you dont).

Alright well you said you enjoy the caster types and doing either support (not outright healing thou) and straight up damage.

Assuming you only have prophecies (the *first* guild wars) you've got Monks, Mesmers, Necromancers, and Elementalists for your caster types, of those four I'd recommend you try a good ole' fashioned Ele. It's hard to go wrong with one, they're not to complex; throw rocks, fireballs and w/e else at your enemies till they drop.

Otherwise you may enjoy a Necro, they aren't as straightforward as Ele's but can deal wicked damage. With these guys stick with either Curses or Minions and you'll do just fine.

You might also like a protection monk, but beware monks are nearly completely support characters, you will likely be called upon to do a lot of "blunt healing" as you said.

Also if you happen to have the Factions campaign I whole heartedly recommend the Ritualist, they offer a lot of unique abilities and do some very cool party support, straight up damage and can even heal as well as any monk if necessary.

I won't get into builds and such here but if you check out the campfire section of the forums you can find starter guides for all professions and many builds and strategies.

oh and welcome to Guild Wars! Hope you enjoy your stay :-)

As everything is changeable in GW it is impossible to gimp your character, you change there skills ther skill points, there secondary profession, everything. Play what ever you want. Plenty of cookie cutters here: www.pvxwiki.com

With only Prophicies then Necromancer is the best choice.

They are very flexible and have many good builds. They can help buff a party or debuff foes. They can steal health and deal nice direct damage, often armor ignoring. They can also create an army of minions that serve both to deal damage and take damage for your party.

If you pick up Factions then give the Ritualist a good hard look as its possibly the most versitile all around caster class. It has offense, defence, straight healing and Spirits all that can combine into many very effective, and fun, builds.

There are NO perminant choices in GW. Everything can be altered, your attributes, your skills, your armor, and your secondary profession.
Play to have fun and adjust stuff to be obtimized later once you learn more about the game.

As everyone keeps saying, pick any caster class, you can't go wrong. Even a monk can be a smiter instead of a healer. If no one has pointed you to the wiki, we have two - one available in-game by choosing Help on the Menu.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Both will give you details on the different professions and which secondaries work well. But if you don't like what you have, just delete the character.

The only thing to remember about character deletions is that each character receives a gift (mini-pet) on the anniversary of his/her creation.

I would not recommend smiting with Prophecies only, it's lacking.

It depends on what campaign you have some builds require SKILLS from different campaigns like 600hp monk requires from all 3 :O ( I think I cant remember. You just gotta find your own farming build / PvP build make it up :O